Lincoln Tan: Honestly sharing views the way to solve controversy

No crime, no wars, no discrimination, and Helen Clark holding hands with Don Brash. If only that were life. Unfortunately, we all know that real life is anything but that.

However, every time I touch on any issue that may be controversial or uncomfortable I receive emails and letters from readers asking me to stop and write only about happy things.

Responding to what I wrote last week, Eddie, from Wellington says: "Most of us immigrants came to New Zealand for a peaceful and happy life, so if immigrants themselves, i.e. you, cannot write happy stories, then maybe I suggest you stop writing altogether."

Adrian, an immigrant from Malaysia, writes: "It would be better if you wrote about the good things immigrants are doing here. I already stopped reading the Herald because it has too much bad news."

Bad news comes unbidden in mainstream newspapers and good news must usually be searched for. That, to me, is a reflection of real life.

By talking about the good and totally ignoring the bad, lopsided stories that give only one side are bound to be flawed - and it would throw out the window everything I have been taught as a journalist. Balance, my first editor used to tell me, is the most important factor in writing a story, and I guess I have taken that on board as a columnist.

Every story has many sides to it and we must be open to diversity of views and opinions in order to get the full picture.

Remember the story of the blind men and the elephant?

A group of blind men touched an elephant to learn about it, but each one touched a different part - the trunk, tail, flank and tusk.

When they compared notes, each gave a different account and they couldn't agree about what an elephant looked like.

Some of us are like those blind men and view reality only from our perspective, shaped only by events that take place in our own lives.

Amy and Kenneth Lim wrote to the Herald's letters page saying that they are fully employed and that my perception that employers are discriminatory in hiring Asian workers is at best biased and at worst uninformed.

It seems to matter little to them that research and surveys by organisations such as the Asia New Zealand Foundation, Massey University and Hudson confirms that acts of discrimination do exist in New Zealand. Employers themselves - 80 per cent out of 1700 in a Hudson survey held four months ago - say there are barriers to migrants participating successfully in the New Zealand workforce.

Holding views such as, "I am not hungry, therefore there is no famine in the world", will do little to solve anything.

Like the blind men and the elephant, we will have a fuller picture to any problem only when we talk about it, compare notes, and work towards a solution.

Through this column I have made people talk about this employment issue, and I think the intention to help to resolve problems faced by skilled immigrants and employers by some organisations is real and sincere.

The Asia New Zealand Foundation will be fronting an exercise to educate business leaders on the advantages of employing immigrant workers and finding out what sort of support employers needed for them to do so.

The foundation also aims to get behind the mystery of Kiwi experience and what employers actually mean when they ask migrants for one.

Responding to my search for positive stories of skilled migrants, Dave, a Malaysian banker, shared with me his inspiring story proving that dreams still do come true for immigrants to New Zealand.

In a similar way to many other migrants, Dave's story started with him sending out 50 CVs and getting no response from employers when he moved here in 2001.

Desperate to make ends meet, he grabbed any type of work that came along. At one stage he worked on three jobs - as a postman in the morning, selling lunch-boxes later in the day, and cleaning public toilets at night. He took home barely $350 each week.

He hopped from job to job, seizing openings within the companies for which he was working. With each move - from postman to accounts - he inched closer to his desired profession.

Now he is back in banking and has just started work as a products manager at a bank in Takapuna, earning a handsome six-figure annual income.

Dave says: "If I had just sent out my CVs and sat back hoping for the best and had done nothing else, I would still be at home today complaining about how New Zealand employers were not giving me a chance."

His advice to immigrants wanting to get employment is to get out and network - do anything that will connect you to people. Immigrants must be prepared to work hard to realise their objectives in getting the job they want because opportunities will not just fall in their laps. And because most businesses are small, connections are even more important than the CV, Dave says.

And for the readers who have requested happy news, here's a happy update. Chinese student Ben Sun, whom I mentioned in an earlier column and was featured in the Aucklander as the Unitec graduate who sent 60 CVs to employers without getting a single reply, rang me to say he has started a part-time job that is related to his Unitec communications qualifications.

"Things are looking brighter for me," he says. "Fortunately, I never gave up hope."